An Arresting Succah Decoration

by Rabbi Mendel Weinbach zt'l

When you walk into a succah you expect to see inspiring decorations such as colorful ushpizin charts and pictures of great rabbis. The succah of one young married Torah scholar in Israel, however, had an additional touch. On its walls hung some very official looking papers with Russian letters forming their text. When asked what they were all about he offered a truly touching explanation.

As a youngster back in Russia he became interested in religion and began learning Torah in the Torat Chaim Yeshiva. His atheistic father stronger disapproved of this turn in the life of his son and asked the local police to forcibly bring him home. The boy determinedly returned to the yeshiva and arrest warrant followed arrest warrant until he was old enough to be independent and his father made peace with the situation.

It is those arrest warrants that formed the most striking decoration of the above-mentioned succah.

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